Townsend Township

Townsend Township

Townsend township derives its name from Kneeland Townsend, who owned the greater part of the land in the first settlement. He was, prior to coming to Ohio, a merchant in New Haven, Connecticut, and was a man highly respected for his integrity, business habits and general uprightness of character.

The surface of the township is generally level with slight undulations in the second and third sections. The soilis a clay loam, with a mixture of sand in the northern and northwestern portions. The streams small, the largest being

Rattlesnake creek, a tributary of the Huron, flowing through the west part of the township. The name originated from the large number of rattlesnakes that were formerly found along the stream. There are two other branches of the Huron in the western part, and La Chapelle, a tributary of the Vermillion, in the eastern part. The stream is said to have derived its name from a Frenchman who discovered it, and explored it to its source.

Townsend was originally clothed with a magnificent growth of timber, the principal varieties of which were white oak, whitewood, ash, hickory, black walnut, butternut, beech maple. The manufacture of white oak staves was an important industry of this township for many years. The staves were usually marketed at Milan, and so extensive was the business that the product was known as "Townsend wheat."

The first election for township officers was held, in pursuance of an order of the supreme court, October 15, 1820, at the house of Benjamin Bailey. Jasper Miles, Abijah Barber, and Isaac R. Wright were judges, and Frederick Perring and Royal Munger, clerks of election. Township officers were elected as follows: Frederick Perring, clerk; Abijah Barber, David Lee, and Benjamin Bailey, trustees; Thomas E. Fletcher and Isaac R. Wright, overseers of the poor; Royal Munger and David C. Lewis, fence viewers; Hiram Bailey, appraiser of property; Samuel Sherman, lister; Abijah Barber, treasurer.

The earliest settlements in the township were made in the north part, in section number three, and George Miller is generally accorded the honor of being the first settler. He removed with his family from Pennsylvania to Milan, (then called Avery,) Erie county, Ohio, in 1809, and remained there until 1811, when he came to Townsend, and took up his abode on lot number five. His log cabin was the first habitation for the abode of civilized people in the township. Mr. Miller was a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in 1765.

Soon after Miller, came William Burdue and family. Burdue was also a native of Pennsylvania, and was born November 26, 1782. March 28, 1809, he married Elizabeth Blazer, who was born September 26, 1791. 1810 he removed with his family, consisting of wife and one child, to the vicinity of Milan, then called Indian Village, but remained there only one year, when he moved into Townsend, making his location on lot number four, in section three.

The first postoffice was established in 1833 or 1834, with Daniel Phillips as postmaster, who kept the office in his house, on lot ninety-two, in the first section. The office was called East Townsend, which name it has retained until the present time, for the reason that there was an office in Sandusky county of the name of Townsend.

The first east and west mail through Townsend was carried, on foot, by a man of the name of Coles, whose trip extended from Akron to Norwalk. At first his mail bag consisted of a large sized pocket book, locked with a padlock of about the size of a silver half dollar, but the first trip he made through Townsend his "mail bag" was entirely empty. An early mail carrier was a man by the name of Waldron, and on one of his trips through the woods he threw the mail bag at a deer, knocking it down, and before the animal could regain his feet he jumped upon it and cut its throat with a pocket-knife. A man by the name of De Bow carried the mail from Norwalk to Medina, back in the twenties. His route passed within twenty or thirty rods of Thomas Fletcher's house, on the creek, south of the Medina road. Fletcher cut a mortise in a large white oak tree, on the road, for the reception of his mail, and made an arrangement with the mail carrier to blow his tin horn whenever his contained any mail. The arrangement was faithfully carried out by De Bow, and the sound of his horn became as familiar as the song of the whippoorwill.

The earliest doctors who practiced in the township were doubtless from the surrounding towns. The first resident physician was Dr. C. B. Stanton, who located at the center, and began to practice in 1847.

The different settlements in Townsend were so separated from each other that election days were the only occasions on which they met together. Men and boys attended the election as a holiday, bringing their rifles with them to shoot at target. As but few votes were polled and but little excitement, politically, prevailed, they had plenty of time to engage in sports.

At the presidential election, when Jackson was elected president, there was a grand wrestling match between the two political parties. It was a close contest, but the administration party prevailed, who regarded the result as significant, and the affair came very near ending in a general fight.

Although the first settlers in Townsend were among the first in the county, the township was nevertheless much more slowly settled than many others. The land was difficult to bring under subjection, being generally wet and very heavily timbered, and the township was generally shunned by the earlier emigrants. Many who did take up land, and ran in debt for it, were compelled, after years of hard toil and privation, to give up the struggle, thus losing the improvements they had made. When the land was once cleared and drained, it was found to be very productive, and in the character of its soil the township now ranks among the best in the county.

A. substantial, two-story brick town hall was erected in the summer of 1870, at the center, costing four thousand five hundred dollars. The plan was drawn and the building erected by E. Kinney, architect and builder, living at Townsend center.

William Townsend, one of the original proprietors of the township, put up a block house at the center, in which he opened a store 1822 or 1823. It was furnished from his store in Sandusky, which he established in the winter of 1819-20, bringing his first goods from New Haven, Connecticut, in a sleigh.

A store was subsequently kept here a short time by Kneeland Townsend, brother of William Townsend, and still later by James Arnold, who continued in merchandise for a number of years.

There are two villages in the township, of nearly equal size, called Townsend center and Collins, the latter situated on the railroad, half a mile north of the center. At Townsend center there are two churches, two stores, one millinery shop, one blacksmith shop, one school house, one sawmill, one bee-house, one violin manufacturer and one architect and builder.

At Collins there are one general store one grocery, one tin shop, one millinery store, one hotel, two blacksmith shops, one wagon shop, two shoe shops,

The pioneer mill of Townsend was established by William Burdue. He brought with him from Pennsylvania a pair of small millstones and set up a hand mill for grinding grain. The rude contrivance was a great convenience to the early settlers, who were thus saved many miles of travel, through dense woods to get their milling done.

The first wedding in Townsend was that of Dr. Lyman Fay, of Milan, and Miss Caroline Kellogg, daughter of Orisimus Kellogg, of this township. This event occurred at the house of the bride's father, July 21, 1816, David Abbott, Esq., tying the nuptial knot.

William and Elizabeth Burdue were the parents of the first white children born in the township. They were twins, were born in the year 1816, and lived only a few months. The next birth was that of Roxena Goodell, daughter of David and Electa Goodell. She was born June 19, 1817, married Amherst Ordway, January 24, 1838, and died in Wood county, Ohio, May 1876. A birth also occurred in one of the Barber families in 1817.

The first tavern was opened by Moses D. Fowler, in the southwest part of town, on the Medina road, about the year 1834. On the southeast corner of the cross roads, where the west line road intersects the Medina road, stands the old "Blue Fly" erected by William Thompson. It was originally painted blue. Some one facetiousiy dubbed it "the blue fly," and the place has been known by that name. Thompson kept it as a tavern for five or six years when he sold it to Theodore Williams, of Norwalk.

The first school house was built in the Barber settlement, about the year 1818. The first school teacher is not known with certainty, but is generally supposed to have been Jasper Miles, who taught a winter school. Miss Polly Barber kept the first summer school. Lucy Tenant was among the earliest school teachers in the township.

"The Western Reserve Union Institute," was established at Collins, in 1855, chiefly through the efforts of W. S. Hyde. The institution derived its support from the tuition of its pupils, and was not incorporated. It had an existence until about the year 1870, when the building was purchased by the township, and has since been used as a district school.

The first saw mill in this township was built by David Lee, 1820. It was located on lot seventy-three, in the fourth section, on Rattlesnake creek. "There are, at the present time, three saw mills in operation. The mill near the center was erected by James Arnold, in the winter of 1848-49. When completed, he sold it to William Humphrey, who operated it until his death, in 1874, when it passed into the hands of George Bargus, the present owner.

The sawmill of L. V. McKesson was established by Cyrus Minor, in 1856. He operated it for five or six years, when he sold to James McCullough, who, a year subsequently, moved the machinery away. A man by the name of Funk afterwards bought the building and fitted it up for a grist mill, which he carried on for three years, and then removed the machinery to Mt. Vernon.

Mrs. Caroline Fay gave the following account of their flight on hearing of Hull's surrender: "The sad news was announced at my father's dwelling at the hour of midnight of the 8th of July. The elder members of our family arose and set themselves to work immediately, making preparations to flee for their lives. At ten o'clock in the morning we were all ready and commenced our flight from the savage foe which we imagined was in close pursuit. We directed our course for Cuyahoga, Portage county. It had been raining quite hard all of the previous night. After traveling four or five miles we fell in company with four families of our acquaintance. We got twelve miles on our journey by dark, and pitched our tents and partook of our evening meal, and were obliged to spread our beds on the wet ground, and in the morning they were nearly covered with water caused by the rain that had fallen during the night. There we were, in unbroken wilderness, and an unfrequented road of seventy-five miles to our place of destination. We were obliged to ford all the streams that lay in our path or to stop and cut trees and bridge those that were flooded by the recent rain. We were on our journey eight days and seven nights without seeing so much as a log cabin, expecting every night when we lay down to rest to be tomahawked and scalped before morning by the Indians. Many of the youth of our company were so much fatigued by travel that they could not stand alone when they first rose in the morning. One night we camped near a sugar camp where some one had made sugar the previous spring and spread our beds on some bark that was lying on the ground. To my astonishment, when I arose in the morning, I saw a blacksnake peeping out his head from under the bed that I had rested upon. removing the bed the men killed seven large snakes."